President Barack Obama squandered his last chance to persuade young Americans to vote for him again, choosing to use his high profile interview with MTV to instead to attack Mitt Romney with the same, old rhetoric he has used in weeks past during the debates.
On Friday evening the President sat down for a 30 minute “Ask Obama Live: An Interview with the President” in the Blue Room of the White House with MTV’s Sway Calloway that was broadcast across every MTV station. Meanwhile, MTV’s Andrew Jenks interviewed a group of young who were located elsewhere to get their questions for the President and feedback on his responses.
Jenks opened the program by stressing the importance of the program for people of ages 18 to 29 years old and that they account for 45 million of the eligible voters in the United States.
Calloway asked the President ten questions, ranging from the economy to the environment to Obama’s musical tastes. Libya was not mentioned, nor was any foreign policy question asked. Calloway also pointed out at the start of the interview that the top two issues for young Americans right now are the economy and employment opportunities for recent and soon-to-be college graduates. Obama began and ended the interview by ignoring that point.
When asked what he could realistically offer to young voters in a second term, Obama stated that the country had made “real progress” since he was elected. He went on to tout having saved the auto-industry, minimized layoffs to teachers, police officers, firefighters and other mainly union-oriented jobs, none of which have anything to do with the youth jobless crisis in America.
Obama promised to hire more math and science teachers, keep college tuitions low, use more clean energy, reduce the deficit by means including a higher tax on wealthy Americans, invest more heavily in science and technology, and to use the money that would be saved by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to “put people to work on roads and bridges.”
He also bragged about having doubled fuel-efficiency requirements for automobiles, saving people money. He failed to note however, that since the price of gasoline has also doubled during his presidency, people aren’t actually saving money. He ended by encouraging viewers who wanted specifics to go to his website, barackobama.com.
On the subject of opening pathways for young entrepreneurs, and managing tuition debt, Obama said, “We’ve promoted entrepreneurship.” He went on to praise small business, promising to eliminate the capital gains tax for them – the same Capital Gains Tax that recent Obama ads have criticized Romney for paying too low a rate on at 14 percent. Yet Obama insisted he would eliminate this tax for small business. He also promoted the Small Business Administration, implying that he was responsible for its work, even though the SBA has been around since 1953.
As for controlling debt from student loans, Obama said that the best way to control debt was to “make sure that people don’t get loaded up with it to begin with,” later adding, “We have kept student loan interest rate in check. We now have to go directly to colleges and universities to work on cutting tuition.” Obama also offered another government solution, suggesting that students go to his newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to learn exactly how much college will cost them and how to pay off their debt.
He also took a shot at Romney, stating that Romney wanted college students and recent grads to rely on their parents. In fact, Romney and vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan have stressed the importance of grads not having to burden their parents after graduation
And it wouldn’t be an Obama interview without a discussion on women’s issues. Obama said he supported women making their own healthcare decisions and suggested that Romney wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood. In fact, Romney has only promoted the idea of cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood, not banning the organization.
After a couple of softball questions about Obama’s perception of today’s music and his daughter Malia’s future dating life, Calloway asked the President if he had a message for young people on the importance of voting, no matter who they voted for. Obama responded that although every candidate says that their election is the most important this election truly is. Then, instead of stressing the importance of voting period, he tastelessly proceeded to attack Mitt Romney on various issues, and summed up by telling viewers to go to vote.barackobama.com to learn how to register to vote (for him).
Throughout the interview, Obama shared little details on what he would actually do if reelected, and was vague on what he had accomplished during his first term. He also failed to explain why young people should care about any of the things he said he had accomplished, as none of the things he listed directly affect young voters.
Obama wasted a great opportunity to speak to America’s young voters about the need for them to play a role in their own future by voting and the importance of the democratic process. Instead, he decided to attack Romney and to selfishly promote his own agenda. Young voters’ choice options this election couldn’t be more clear.
